{"id":515531,"date":"2026-01-04T06:31:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-04T06:31:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/515531\/"},"modified":"2026-01-04T06:31:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-04T06:31:14","slug":"knicks-offense-bogging-down-without-energizer-josh-hart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/515531\/","title":{"rendered":"Knicks offense bogging down without energizer Josh Hart"},"content":{"rendered":"

Josh Hart\u2019s absence is glaring.<\/p>\n

The Knicks certainly miss his do-it-all impact, as their 130-119 loss to the 76ers on Saturday night<\/a> at Madison Square Garden dropped them to 2-3 in five games since he went out with a sprained ankle<\/a>.<\/p>\n

They play noticeably slower without him there to push the pace in transition. Their offensive rebounding dominance has pretty much vanished. They lack a physical perimeter defender.<\/p>\n

\"JoshJosh Hart looks on during the first half of the Knicks\u2019 130-119 loss to the 7yers on Jan. 3, 2025 at Madison Square Garden. JASON SZENES\/ NY POST<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of the day, having Josh out there helps a ton,\u201d coach Mike Brown said. \u201c\u2026 Right now, our pace is not good. We\u2019re walking the ball up almost every time and then everything is just going to the front side. It\u2019s been a while, at least these last two games, our staples \u2014 our pace in the full court and the front court, we wanna space the floor correctly, we wanna make quick decisions, we wanna touch the paint and we want the ball getting reversed \u2014 and we haven\u2019t seen a lot of any of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

And the Knicks will be without him for at least a little while longer. He is only doing light court work and won\u2019t be reevaluated until next Friday.<\/p>\n

Without him, Brown started Mitchell Robinson and moved Karl-Anthony Towns to power forward, where he has struggled this season. Both Towns and Robinson had rough showings Saturday, and neither is at his best when on the court together.<\/p>\n

Brown has little choice at the moment. Kevin McCullar Jr. and Mohamed Diawara have entered the rotation in an attempt to fill Hart\u2019s role and they largely have not been difference-makers, though each has had moments.<\/p>\n

Hart\u2019s fingerprints are usually all over the boxscore. Beyond the stats, he is their energizer when they are sluggish and down in games.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not a coincidence the first lull for the Knicks in weeks has come without him.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, we miss him,\u201d Jalen Brunson said, \u201cbut there is no excuse to what we should be doing out there. Obviously, he\u2019s a big part of what we do, but we gotta step up.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"JabariJabari Walker slams the ball in front of Mitchell Robinson, Mohamed Diawara, and Jalen Brunson during the second half of the Knicks\u2019 loss to the 76ers. JASON SZENES\/ NY POST<\/p>\n

Robinson returned for Saturday\u2019s game against the 76ers at MSG after missing the previous three games for load management. He recorded two points and five rebounds in 19 minutes.<\/p>\n

He had his best game of the year the last time the Knicks faced the 76ers, finishing with 21 points and 16 rebounds \u2014 10 of them offensive. Saturday, though, he failed to impact the game.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWhat\u2019s happening on and off the Garden court\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Knicks by Stefan Bondy, a weekly exclusive on Sports+.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

James Nnaji, who played with the Knicks during the summer league but was recently given college eligibility by the NCAA and joined Baylor, made his collegiate debut Saturday<\/a> in the team\u2019s loss to TCU. He played 16 minutes and recorded five points and four rebounds along with four fouls.<\/p>\n

The Knicks acquired \u2014 and still own \u2014 his draft rights from the Hornets as part of the three-team Towns trade ahead of last season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Josh Hart\u2019s absence is glaring. The Knicks certainly miss his do-it-all impact, as their 130-119 loss to the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":515532,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3768],"tags":[7,327,304,6,1136,191,3810,3806,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-515531","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-knicks","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-josh-hart","10":"tag-knicks","11":"tag-nba","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-knicks","14":"tag-newyork","15":"tag-newyorkknicks","16":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115835429601680671","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=515531"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515531\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/515532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=515531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=515531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=515531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}